Smoke To Clear At Schools -- Eastside Districts Prepare For New Law

FORUM

Lake Washington School District residents may attend a community forum on the state law banning the use of tobacco on school property at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Rose Hill Junior High School, 13505 N.E. 75th St., Redmond.

No if, ands or butts about it: no smoking at school.

Come September, no one can light up on public-school campuses. That means no students, no teachers, no janitors, no administrators and no community members can smoke on school grounds.

Two years ago, the state Legislature banned tobacco on school property, beginning this September. Smoking areas, however, can be retained in alternative high schools and adult vocational-technical programs.

Eastside districts are preparing for the new law with smoking-cessation classes for students and teachers, student smokers serving on no-smoking policy committees, and resignation on the part of most smokers - students and teachers - that the change is inevitable.

``I'll quit,'' said Peter Sergeeff, a Bellevue High School junior, as he took a drag from his freshly lit cigarette. Sergeeff said sneaking a smoke would be too much of a hassle.

But for Newport High School English teacher Mike Duffy, it isn't that easy. Duffy, a longtime smoker, knows smoking is bad for his health. But banning smoking on campus isn't going to make him quit, and stepping off campus to smoke isn't going to make him a better teacher.

``I am very resentful of the law,'' Duffy said. ``I have been in this building for 20 years, and I expect to be here for the rest of my career. For me to leave campus to smoke means that I will have to give up part of my planning time. What is dangerous about this kind of law is that it invites people to break the law.''

Bellevue High School student smokers have the most to lose - or gain, depending on your smoking stance. Bellevue High is the only Eastside high school that still has a designated smoking area, excluding the Eastside's alternative high schools.

The Bellevue School Board will discuss changing the district policy to smoke-free campuses next month. Meanwhile, a nine-member Bellevue High committee - three staff members and six student smokers - is drafting the school policy to enforce the smoking ban. Administrators say involving students in the policy may translate into greater student compliance.

``If they are the ones who set the offenses, maybe they will be more likely to buy into the solution,'' said Sandy Dyer, Bellevue school nurse. ``We are hoping we have a better chance of solving the problem rather than just moving the problem.''

But junior Heather Hynes says the problem will move: to the bathrooms, behind the backstop, to neighbors' back yards.

``There are going to be more places that will have cigarette butts on the ground,'' said Hynes, puffing while perched on the back wall of the smoking area. ``Some people will smoke in their cars. People who want to smoke will go somewhere to smoke.''

Cars are the most popular place for Newport High School smokers. Newport closed its student smoking section three years ago. Horst Momber, Newport assistant principal, said that when smoking is made less convenient, it becomes less inviting.

``If we don't make it easy or convenient for kids to smoke, we can stop a whole bunch,'' Momber said. ``I think many kids started to smoke in smoking areas. You could see the ones who were just beginning. They would take a puff and cough and hack.''

Newport Senior Karen Snow, a nonsmoker, is glad cigarettes are out.

``There shouldn't be smoking on campus,'' Snow said. ``People who don't smoke have to still walk through the section, with ashes and butts everywhere. You get the smell all over your clothes.''